Who says Pep Guardiola doesn’t know what to do with a striker? For Manchester City, the early evidence is that their new No.9 is not going to disrupt Guardiola’s passing machine. The champions outplayed a sluggish West Ham side from start to finish and eased their way to a sleepy 2-0 win thanks to two from Haaland, who followed up a first-half penalty with the kind of goal that suggests they are already in the same. wavelength as his new teammates. For City, the focus in the summer has been finding ways to stay motivated. In a sense, Guardiola has followed Sir Alex Ferguson’s formula for overhauling a position of strength, selling Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, but the principles remain intact. This is evolution, not revolution, and it was immediately clear that this was more or less the same city, albeit with one crucial difference: an offense led not by a finger-snapping fake nine, but by a big, muscular man whose main function smashes the ball into the back of the net. The eyes were immediately drawn to Haaland. It even appeared there were questions for the 22-year-old to answer after a nervous finish in City’s Community Shield defeat by Liverpool. For example, would the physicality of English football be too much for a player used to the Bundesliga’s less powerful defenders? And what did Guardiola have in store for the former Borussia Dortmund striker? A stint at left-back? Work as a right winger? The answer, of course, was to put Haaland in the middle, with Phil Foden and Jack Grealish on the wings, De Bruyne floating ominously and Ilkay Gündogan pushing forward from midfield to unsettle West Ham’s low block. The result was that City’s superiority was absolute in a disappointing game. They started slowly in the East End heat, almost behind when Michail Antonio narrowly fell, but soon took control. For West Ham, who emerged with Kurt Zouma as their only fit centre-back, there was no way out of their own half at times. The signs were alarming. West Ham looked to hit City on the break, with Jarrod Bowen’s runs down the right worrying Joao Cancelo, but too often a lack of quality let them down. Play passed through Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals and while Declan Rice looked to lead his side, the West Ham captain found himself mostly trying to keep City’s creative threats quiet. A City goal was coming. After 21 minutes Foden cut in onto his left foot and sent a teasing cross for Haaland, who was cleared by Ben Johnson and grimaced after botching his header. She was a bad miss, though she would eventually find his touch. A crowd of 62,500 had roared David Moyes’s side at the start, but disappointment quickly set in. At times, lingering beneath the surface, there was even a sense that Moyes’ work was a little stale. With Antonio unable to hold the ball up, the pressure became relentless. Grealish was always willing to run at Vladimir Koufal on the left and there was a goal for the home side in the 27th minute, the flag raised for offside when Gundogan set up De Bruyne for an easy finish. The game was bent to Guardiola’s tactical will. West Ham’s midfield luminaries, Rice and Tomas Sucek, didn’t know where to look. There always seemed to be a spare yellow shirt and the ploy eventually paid off. Gundogan stepped forward and played the pass, Haaland timed it perfectly and Alphonse Areola, who had just replaced the injured Lukasz Fabianski in goal, brought down the striker. It was a clean penalty and there was no doubt in Haaland’s mind when he stepped up to take it. The finish was unmistakable, a low left arrowing into the bottom right corner, with Areola sent the other way. West Ham, who started without any of their summer signings, needed a new approach. They played with more energy in the second half and Moyes took a gamble, replacing Antonio with his new £35.5million striker Gianluca Scamocca. There were brief flickers from West Ham. Saïd Benrahma, also on as a substitute, gave Ederson something to do with a tame shot. Rice shot after a defensive fumble. However, City always looked likely to score again. Gundogan missed a good chance and the game was safe when De Bruyne opened for West Ham 25 minutes from time. The pass was stunningly beautiful and, as Haaland peeled down the inside-right channel and opened his body to work the ball onto his left foot, there couldn’t have been a single person in the ground who thought he was going to miss.
